cmalouf

Hey guys,

I have been building my 302 monster over the past few months or so, and I am (seemingly) getting down to the home stretch. This forum has been a great resource! I have fox accessories, A/C and P/S and no smog/air injection, and am running the kit fans as pullers behind the radiator. I used rivet nuts and aluminum stock to bring the fans as close as possible to the radiator without actually penetrating the core, and the radiator fits as it should (though the water pump pulley is very close to the driver side fan).

I am going to create some ducting for the air to properly come through the nose, and through the condenser and rad, but am curious as to if I should make a sheet aluminum fan shroud too. The fans sit just below the endtank welds as it sits, so I'm not sure there would be any benefit to the shroud. I could see spacing the sheet up a bit (so that SOME air would be pulled from the rest of the core through the fans), and could use the SPAL flaps, but I'm not sure if this would be more of a restriction than anything else. I have attached pics of what I have so far.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!
Charlie

sbwrench

One thing you should consider for sure is sealing the fans to the rad. The way you have them mounted right now will make that difficult. Consider hanging them from the top and bottom and using a strip of thick foam to seal them to the core.

cmalouf

Thanks for the reply. I think you're right, given the overall lack of clearance my best bet would be to seal the fans to the core. I'm thinking of getting some dense 1/2" or maybe 5/8" foam to create a 'shim' of sorts that matches the radius/shape of the outline of the fan housing to fill in the gap between it and the core. I'll see what I can dig up.

Due to clearance the fans can't really move from where they are. Where they are will also allow me to remove the radiator with the fans attached, which is something I would like to be able to do.

97miatam

in my case I had to shroud it. I tried two fans without shroud and was no where close to keeping the car cool.

MRM331

I would recommend making up a shroud for the rear and spacing your fans so that one is at the top and one at the bottom. Fill in the remaining spots with spal flaps. Make sure that as many rows of the core as possible have access to moving air from one of the fans.

To get good flow between the shroud and the core try using some thicker sheet aluminum and forming it on the edges to give it strength as opposed to the straps. I made my first shroud with straps and my second with formed aluminum. The second kept temps under 210 even after during 45 minute track sessions.

The most important step is to completely duct the nose of the car on the top, sides and bottom leading to the front of the core. Think of it as an HVAC duct in a house.

You'd be fine with what you have (and nose ducting) if you didn't have AC. With the AC on and the car not moving you're going to see temps start rising in under a minute.

-Jason

cmalouf

Thanks for the replies!

I will look into moving the fans for more row coverage, and ducting is absolutely on the list. Clearance is tight with fox accessories and the radiator is as far forward as I can get it without sacrificing the airbag sensor and hood latch. I am hesitant to move the motor back any more as it just so happens that the driveshsaft from my V8R Getrag conversion unit I used with my stock transmission fit perfectly and no modification other than a t5 yoke on the end.

Would bolting a flat sheet of aluminum directly to the lip of the radiator be too close for any positive impact?

MRM331

I did remove the crash sensor, the hood latch and the entire stock piece of metal from that area to get my radiator as far forward as possible. If you are not willing to sacrifice the latch you don't have much room. The idea behind folding the edges of the aluminum was to give it strength without having to add ribs between it and the core. It may be possible to keep it flat and add the ribs to the outside, between the fans. When bolted on, the fans actually add quite a bit of strength to the whole thing.
-Jason

cmalouf

Thanks Jason. I have built shrouds for my old turbo setup before and found that with the fans bolted up it was plenty strong just as a sheet. The way I have the fans mounted now they sit below the mounting surface that the straps are bolted to. When I held the driver side up flush with the flange of the radiator, the fan was contacting the water pump pulley. That's why I had to get a little creative with the rivet nuts and getting the fans mounted below that flange. After looking at some other pictures on the site I think that mounting the driver side fan lower and the passenger side higher will be the next plan of attack. I can't remember if I was able to clear everything with the passenger side fan higher up, but I will check that out tonight.